Through Sandridge, Vidovich owns about 130,000 acres with 38,500 acres in Kern, 82,000 acres in Kings, 9,500 acres in Tulare and 300 acres in Fresno county, per ParcelQuest. Water from Angiola Water District will also be moved in the line, according to a declaration by Angiola General Manager Mark Grewal. Boswell has refused requests to answer questions about the companys water moves including how much it pumps. But thats the way it is. His strategy has always been to use about 30% of his land for farming and 70% for its water. Vidovich fires back: Kings Co. water pipeline battle picks up steam All right reserved. He asks DWR to demand a full accounting of how much water Sandridge moves, where it comes from and where it ends up. If the little guys disappear, we lose business diversity and expertise, Zetland said. In terms of special enforcement to shut things down, thats not what SGMA provides to the department, she said. Its unclear if Boswell is selling surface water on a regular basis, but according to invoices obtained by SJV Water, the company did sell 49,000 acre feet of its Kings River water out of the county for $47.5 million in 2015 and 2016 and another 35,000 acre feet of river water for an undisclosed amount in 2019. None of that has been discussed yet, he stressed. . So far, the 48-inch pipeline has been trenched and laid out from somewhere north of Lemoore more than 10 miles south near the community of Stratford on private land with no public notice or oversight. Get inside access to SJV Water by becoming a member. We have an exceptional and experienced customer service and quality control team that supports our efforts and assist our customers with any questions they may have about our products. LEARN MORE ▸ What We Sell. believe Sunridge can have the greatest impact are: Previously, Michael was an investment professional at RJI Capital, a boutique private equity and. Farmers in the heart of Californias agricultural belt Kings County sense something is awry with their water supplies. We help agribusiness owners, operators, and entrepreneurs grow their businesses into industry leaders with the help of our capital and strong industry focussed expertise, globally, Our unique focus on food and agriculture, allows us to better understand particular agribusiness needs faster and have in-depth sector and sub-sector expertise bringing solutions to your business, Our stewardship and value creation track-record is unparalleled and our investing, operations and business development skills add value beyond just capital, We are driven by the highest environmental, ethical and socially responsible principles and work with you to achieve the best possible outcomes for all stakeholders during the whole lifetime of our ownership, As we are family backed, we pride ourselves on providing patient and long-term capital, We can provide owners and operations with the following solutions, We have flexible mandate to create custom solutions for owners and operators wishing to either fully transition a business yet also have the ability to form mutually beneficial partnerships for ownership and growth, Growth capital (organic and acquisitions), Financing for management buy-outs/buy-ins, Real estate and agriculture tourism development (full in-house design & construction teams). The entire San Joaquin Valley, including Kings County, is critically over drafted. John Vidovich General Partner Contact 2 Contact 3 Contact 4 See All Contacts Dynamic search and list-building capabilities Real-time trigger alerts Comprehensive company profiles Valuable research and technology reports Get a D&B Hoovers Free Trial Financial Data The titans behind the comments are J.G. (See sidebar online.). A strong, diverse farming sector is vital to the local economy and food security and it requires water. When you first meet John Vidovich, everything from his ball cap to his dirty boots tells you hes a farmer. They get some water from the Kings River but rely mostly on groundwater. Boswell Company, and Sandridge Partners, controlled by John Vidovich, will be back in court March 23 where Judge Valerie Chrissakis will decide whether the Sandridge pipeline is subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). He started buying consistently in Kern, Kings and Tulare counties throughout the early and mid-2000s and continues to add properties sometimes at a blistering pace. The little guy is gone, said Walker, the walnut farmer. In any event, Vidovich fallowed his Angiola land and took its groundwater about 25 miles west to his Dudley Ridge lands. But everybody talks about it, and were all concerned.. More recently, he filed a voter initiative in 2016 to allow a 48-foot-tall hotel after the Cupertino City Council shot down a De Anza proposal for building a 105-foot-tall hotel in the western Santa Clara Valley town. Michael holds a BSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MSc with Distinction in Shipping, Trade, and Finance from Cass Business School. HANFORD, Calif. (AP) A Kings County jury has awarded $128.6 million to developers of a proposed solar-powered city who claimed the land sellers broke a contract when they sold the parcels and water rights to someone else. At this point, he said, he uses about 30 percent of his land for farming and 70 percent for water. Transportation, Education Sandridge has since installed coffer dams in the canal to dry a section in anticipation of cutting through the banks, but otherwise construction has stopped. Nor for the man who runs it, John Vidovich, nor for his current pipeline project that will move water from various places in Kings County to various other undisclosed locations. Everyone else is leaving.. The fight has spilled out in public comments on the Tulare Lake Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan, which covers most of Kings County. Through Sandridge, Vidovich owns about 130,000 acres with 38,500 acres in Kern, 82,000 acres in Kings, 9,500 acres in Tulare and 300 acres in Fresno county, per ParcelQuest. News In aprevious story about the Tulare Lake Subbasin groundwater plan, SJV Water noted that it included only vague outlines for how it planned to manage the areas overdraft and most pumping reduction plans wouldnt kick in until 2035, five years before SGMAs deadline. Vidovich made headlines - and a lot of enemies - in 2009 by permanently selling rights to 14,000 acre feet of state water from a Kings County water district to southern California for $73 million, according to media reports. But, she said, her department cant really step in until it has reviewed groundwater plans submitted to the state in 2020. Absolutely not. We listen to our customers, understand their needs and are never satisfied until they are. He sold rights to more than 14,000 acre feet a year to the Mojave Water Agency in San Bernardino County for a headline-grabbing $73 million. Muriel started her career in the US as a personal assistant and then, 14 years was an Executive Assistant working with a large team at Eurostar International. According to legal briefs filed by Tulare Lake, all the floodwater that can be put to beneficial use has been, and theres no leftover water available for Semitropic. They point to three new pump stations along Angiolas main canal just north of the county line that have the ability to move 100,000 acre feet a year into pipes that head south and west. Whether the water is leaving Kings County for cash payments or to grow crops that will eventually be sold for profit, its all the same thing, said economist David Zetland, who lectures on the politics and economics of water at Leiden University College in the Netherlands. And if its not economical, you dont have to question the morality.. Other water districts contended it was much more. Pace farmed in the valley and partnered with Vidovich for a while. Its a decimal point, Vidovich said of state water amounts compared to what farmers use from rivers and groundwater. Wyrick writes that it is believed Sandridge uses a canal/pipeline system to move groundwater from the Tule and Westside subbasins south and west for use in the Southwest Kings GSA as well as lands in the Kern Subbasin. All the rest of that stuff its just jealousy and innuendo, jealousy and innuendo, jealousy and innuendo.. Now the land is covered with huge almond and pistachio orchards, permanent crops which account for more than 66,000 acres of Kings total 782,731 harvested acres, according to county crop reports. The Tulare Lake Canal Company, controlled by JG Boswell Company, moved the equipment onto the canal banks in late January to block trenching for a pipeline by Sandridge Partners, controlled by John Vidovich. That water would then be moved south through the aqueduct and banked in Semitropic. This is privately owned water being moved on private land, Whitney said, warning that requiring an irrigation pipeline to undergo CEQA review could impact irrigation projects on a wide scale throughout the San Joaquin Valley. And its that groundwater part of Semitropics agreement with Vidovich that is raising hackles along with eyebrows. He often points out that water districts, which oversee water allocations and maintain infrastructure, are public entities, and the public has a right to information, as he told SJV Water in an interview for this story. Sunridge Partners actively seek investment opportunities that address the growing challenges in food and agriculture. Water that he will take, critics fear, and eventually sell to Southern California cities. Numbers havent been set in stone just yet, but its looking like the Kings/Tulare farming areas will settle somewhere near allowing 1.5 acre feet of water to be pumped per acre. You put 20 straws in it, it dont take very long.. Understanding water, water rights and the often complex structures of water districts has become a Vidovich hallmark. But those numbers reflect full contracted allocations. Water fight between two of Valley's largest growers heads to court He was previously also a consultant for Bayer Crop Science and BASF Agriculture in Seeds and Traits with a focus on Wheat. Michael is seasoned agribusiness investment and business development professional with more than a decade of experience. Posted on August 6, 2018 Bakersfield Californian. John Lewis plc, 171 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 5NN. At issue? Vidovich says the animus against him goes back to his 2009 sale of State Water Project (SWP) contract rights tied to land he owned in the Dudley Ridge Water District in Kings County. There is some uncertainty by El Rico GSA with regard to this request because of the hidden nature of Sandridges operations, Wyrick wrote in the June 2020 letter. Vidovich says his quote was clipped and sewn back together to make it sound bad. Vidovich isnt the only pumper in that area, his supporters note. He certainly looks the part in his well-worn jeans and checkered shirts. Philipp was an investment professional at King Street Capital, a large hedge fund, where he led investments in real asset sectors throughout Europe. First off, Hurley said, hes not Vidovichs henchman. He and his son know their land so well they can point out which areas retain more water in which seasons and the direction the water moves underground. Strafford PUD attorney Ray Carlson said during the hearing that the district had been in very preliminary talks with Sandridge about the future possibility of moving its wastewater through the pipeline. But the size of farms increased 14.5% from an average 559 acres to 640 acres. Vidovich used the $73 million in 2010 to buy nearly 75 percent of the land in the Angiola Water District. And he served two terms on the Santa Clara County Planning Commission, appointed once in 1990 and he again in 2010, igniting controversy among activists concerned about sprawl. He does enough farming in the area to make it look like hes a farmer. Now, Pace said, Vidovich will do the same thing on a larger scale by moving Kings and Tulare groundwater to Kern County. Semitropic has paid him $40 million for an easement and Vidovich would also get a cut of the flood water and be allowed to use the facilities to move groundwater, per the project contract. Two days after the Tulare Lake Canal Company sued Sandridge Partners, the farming and water giant owned by John Vidovich, to halt trenching work on a water pipeline set to cut across the company's south of Stratford, Vidovich turned the tables and filed suit against Tulare Lake Canal. Jury awards $128.6M to failed solar town developer - Visalia Times-Delta
Most Expensive House In Melbourne,
Walther P22 Accessories,
How To Make Video Background Transparent Premiere Pro,
Guqin Lessons Chicago,
Articles J